


the Teeth of the Storm

by anax imperator (anax)



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: M/M, Top!Nero, bottom!Dante
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-15 05:22:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18492220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anax/pseuds/anax%20imperator
Summary: Upon returning to the human world after months in the other realm, Dante just wants to relax a little, but Nero has other ideas.





	1. Chapter 1

As Dante approached the door to Devil May Cry, the phone inside the building started to ring. It was such a familiar sound, such a welcome sound; it was like the building itself was saying to him, I'm glad you're home.

It stopped ringing just as Dante put his hand on the door to open it, and a voice said, "Devil May Cry."

The windows were almost as dark as the sky, and Dante hadn't been expecting anyone to be inside; he paused with his hand on the door handle. "Don't say a fucking word," he told Vergil. "Just go upstairs and wait for me."

"I wasn't ..."

Dante turned and raised a finger. "Not a word, Vergil. Upstairs. Wait for me."

Vergil drew himself up and for a moment Dante was sure that his elder twin was going to argue. But in the end, he just nodded, and Dante pulled open the door.

Inside, the building was illuminated only by a single candle on the desk, leaving the rest of the room in darkness. The figure in the chair behind the desk was kicked back sideways, and he glanced over as Dante and Vergil crept in.

"Well, well, well," said Nero. "Look what the cat dragged in. Lemme call you back. Yeah, you're not going to believe this. I'll tell you tomorrow. Yeah. Bye." He hung up and stood up behind the desk.

Next to Dante, he heard Vergil start to inhale to speak, and Dante rounded on him. "Upstairs. Not a fucking word."

"Dante," said Vergil. "I'm entitled ..."

"No, you're not. I'm tired, Vergil, and I'm not in the mood. Just go upstairs before I make you go."

There was a limit to how accommodating Vergil was willing to be, and Dante knew he was reaching the end of it. Nevertheless, Vergil acquiesced, and said only, "We're going to have a conversation later," and he went upstairs, his boots nearly silent on the treads.

Nero watched him go, and then leveled his gaze on Dante. "So you made it back." It wasn't a question. He stalked around the desk, his motions tight and controlled.

"Yeah. And I'm exhausted and I ..."

Dante was interrupted with a violent punch to the face, knocking him sideways. He didn't even see it coming; he was so worn out and _so_ not expecting an attack that it just blindsided him. "And you what!" demanded Nero, grabbing Dante by the coat collar and shaking him. "And you what! Why the hell didn't you _tell me!"_

Tired or not, Dante wasn't completely unprepared to defend himself; he brushed Nero's hand off him, and ducked a second attempted punch. "What the hell, kid? Tell you what?"

Nero glanced toward the stairs that lead up to the second floor, and lowered his voice to a simmer. "Tell me that we're _related,_ you asshole!"

Oh. That. Yeah. Dante had forgotten that he was going to have to deal with this upon meeting up with the kid again. "I wasn't sure," he said, defensively.

"Wasn't _sure."_ Nero raised his fist again. "Wasn't _sure._ So you _suspected."_

"Well ..." What could he say? Dante lifted his hands, palms out, surrendering. "It was only a suspicion, until I got a look at Vergil again, and then I knew. I was only certain then. Okay? I just suspected."

Nero again grabbed Dante by the collar, and for a moment Dante was sure the kid was going to hit him again, but then Nero made a face and lowered his hand. "Fucking hell, Dante, you stink," he said.

Saved? Dante couldn't smell himself anymore, but he was happy to know that the reek he'd cultivated over the past couple of months could serve a useful purpose. "I literally can't remember when I last had a shower," he said. Then he yelped as Nero dragged him toward the bathroom.

"I'm not going to kick your ass until I'm sure that isn't going to rub off on me," said Nero. "Then I'm totally going to."

Dante couldn't get his balance being pulled this way, and if he were honest with himself he didn't really care to try. He was just so fucking tired, he wanted to sleep more than anything else, but if he was going to be forced to bathe first he wasn't going to actually object to that. Dante had long stopped feeling disgusting during his months in the underworld, but the opportunity to finally get clean for once wasn't something he was going to toss aside, even if it came at Nero's ungentle insistence.

Shoved into the bathroom, Dante flipped on the light, expecting to be left alone to clean up, but instead he found Nero yanking his coat off him and unbuckling his pants. "Boots," said Nero. "Now." But then the kid interfered with Dante attempting to obey by peeling off the older hunter's shirt. "Great Sparda's blade," said Nero, in what must have been a swear on Fortuna. "You smell like something three weeks dead."

"I kind of feel like it," said Dante. He closed the toilet lid and sat down on it to unfasten the buckles holding his boots on, and cringed a little at the crusted-on demon blood from who-knew how many stepped-in puddles of it. "You cannot believe ..."

"What I can't believe is that you _fucked me_ without _telling me_ that you're my fucking _uncle,"_ interrupted Nero, with venom in his voice. He took Dante's freed boot by the toe and flung it out into the main room through the open door. "And then you fuck off for almost five months like a fucking coward instead of dealing with me!"

Okay, that was where Dante drew the line. "I wasn't being a coward," he said. "I was busy with a little problem named Vergil. Okay? It had nothing to do with you."

"Vergil," said Nero. "You mean _my father?"_

"Yes," said Dante. He took off his other boot and tossed it out to join the first, and then stood up while unstrapping his gloves. "Are you going to let me take a shower in peace, or what?"

"I'm going to pick _what,"_ said Nero, and he pointed at Dante's pants. "Off."

Well. It wouldn't be the first time Dante had stripped in front of Nero, but it felt a little weird this go around, what with everything being in the open now. And now Nero was also shucking his coat and boots, and pulling his shirt off over his head, and Dante just mentally shrugged and went along with it, loosening his holsters and dropping them and his pants to his ankles and stepping out of them. He turned his back to flip on the water, and just hoped he didn't get punched in the kidney or something.

Nero stepped into the shower with him and, before Dante could do anything, poured a handful of shampoo over the older man's head and started to viciously scrub. He had to push Dante to bend over a touch to reach well, and Dante soon found himself tucked against Nero's body with his head ducked down under the spray, while fingers went through his shaggy mop of hair and roughly rubbed suds through it. Dante's hair was tangled and disgusting, and the water flowing over his head actually turned gray for a few seconds as the worst of the grime came free.

"You are the worst," said Nero, but he sounded less angry now for some reason. "The absolute worst. You made me fall in love with you, and you fucking _knew_ the whole time."

"I ... _what?"_ Dante tried to straighten up, intending to turn around and look Nero in the face, but Nero grabbed him by the hair and forced his head back down. "Ow! Nero ..."

"You heard me," said Nero, and that edge of violence was back in his voice. "I was in love with you, as stupid as that sounds. And you knew the whole time and you said _nothing."_

Dante ... had not known this, and maybe if he had he _would_ have said something. He hadn't expected, wanted, or needed Nero's love; all he'd needed was something physical, something fierce and intense to drown everything else out of his mind for a few brief moments. Before Nero came along, his primary release had been Lady, but Lady couldn't handle his full strength the way Nero could. With Nero there was force and passion and Dante could just let go, because he couldn't really hurt the kid.

But, thinking about it now, as Nero put more shampoo into his hair and scrubbed it down a second time, Nero _had_ reached a point where he'd wanted to cuddle after sex, wanted to sit up and talk instead of roll over and go to sleep. Wanted to hear about Dante's life, and share some of his own. Dante had thought nothing of it at the time, but yeah ... he could believe that the kid had fallen silently in love.

"I'm sorry," said Dante, after his hair was clean-ish. Nero took a bar of soap in one hand and began to rub it over the older hunter's skin. "I honestly didn't know how you felt about me."

"It doesn't matter how I feel about you," said Nero, and then he corrected himself. "Felt. What matters is that you didn't bother to tell me the most important piece of information. The one thing that should have made a difference. You kept that to yourself."

"I told you, I wasn't sure ..."

"Shut the fuck up if all you're going to do is make excuses. Turn around." Dante obediently turned around; the kid looked thoughtful now rather than enraged, his frown pensive. "They're not even good excuses. Save them for someone who cares."

Nero's hands over Dante's chest were less rough now, smoothing the soap over Dante's chest. As good as the warm water felt, as good as it felt to be clean for the first time in months, as much as Dante could have just fallen asleep right here in the spray of water, that touch across his chest, palms across nipples, rubbing on places already clean, woke a quiver in his belly and tightness in his groin. "You don't care?" asked Dante, and he leaned forward, telling himself that he was getting the flow of water off his shoulders and more onto his back, where it would interfere less with what Nero was doing. He definitely wasn't leaning in for a kiss.

So when his lips touched Nero's, and the kid made a soft sound of hunger and need, it was a complete accident and nothing anyone could have anticipated.

Moments later he had Nero's tongue in his mouth, sliding over his own, and the sensation was wet and soft and the kid tasted like curry. That was an interesting flavor after months of having basically nothing to eat and having to survive on his own demonic power, and Dante leaned in closer to drink it in.

That was when Nero's hand closed in his hair once more and he found himself shoved to his knees, his mouth torn away from Nero's and almost directly on a level with Nero's hardening cock.

"I don't," said Nero. "I'm furious with you. I'm going to stay furious with you for a while."

It had been ... a good long time, since Dante had given anyone a blow job, but it wasn't a skill someone just lost. He knew what Nero wanted – the kid wasn't being subtle about it – and he was exhausted enough to not really care. Opening his mouth, he licked cautiously at the tip of Nero's growing erection, only to have it pressed urgently against his mouth. Almost by instinct, Dante opened his mouth wider to accept it, tonguing Nero's length as the kid thrust between his teeth. He was rewarded with a sharp hiss and another strong thrust of the kid's hips.

As Nero's erection struck the back of Dante's throat over and over, Dante started to have trouble breathing, but Nero kept a grip on Dante's hair to hold him in place. Dante laid his hands on Nero's thighs, trying to gain some kind of control over the situation, and he licked the tip and slit of Nero's cock every time the kid pulled out to thrust in again, trying to feel less used and more in charge. Nero was having none of it; the kid hissed, "If you bite me, I'll fucking tear your head off," and rammed his cock farther down Dante's throat.

Eventually Dante got his shit together enough to push Nero back, and Nero complied, pulling his cock free and giving Dante some room to breathe. "If that's the way you want it," said Nero, "that's the way you'll get it," and Dante initially had no idea what the kid was talking about.

Then Nero pulled Dante back up to his feet, pushed him against the side shower wall with his chest to the tile, and a moment later Dante felt soapy hands go down his back once more through the sluicing water. That felt amazing, and Dante closed his eyes; maybe Nero was finished with him sexually and was just going to finish cleaning him up. It was a testament to his weariness that he actually believed this for the thirty seconds it took Nero to work his way down to Dante's hips.

But then Nero's hands went between Dante's buttocks with the bar of soap, and Dante, fully aroused by now, moaned as Nero started to stroke him. He spread his legs, leaning his knees against the tile as Nero's fingers went far enough down to start toying with his testicles. With Dante's erection trapped between his warm skin and the cool tile, and Nero massaging his balls, Dante's body reacted entirely outside his control, and he moaned harshly with his cheek against the wall.

"Nero," he whispered, and Nero leaned against Dante's back, one hand still between Dante's legs. "What are you doing to me?"

"I'm about to fuck you," said Nero. "Why, what do you _want_ me to do to you? I'm open to suggestions."

This statement kind of alarmed Dante, because it had been forever since he'd take a cock in his body and he wasn't sure that Nero had the skill to make it good. But Nero's tone was finally free of that poisonous rage, and Dante wanted to be on the kid's good side for now. At least until he'd rested and recovered his strength; he had no doubt whatsoever that Nero could overpower him right at this moment, and he didn't want to test that. Laying his hands on the shower wall, Dante felt Nero's hands go up his sides – barely ticklish – and then over his arms, coming to rest over his wrists as though to hold him in position.

"You can fuck me if you want," said Dante, and he felt Nero's lips against the back of his neck. One of Nero's hands then went once more between Dante's ass checks, and because Dante was still held to the wall he glanced to one side to discover that he was actually being held by glowing claws.

"You're damned right I can," said Nero, but the kid's tone was softer now, almost in the same timbre as when he used to ask Dante to tell him about Sparda, or about how he got Rebellion, or about his experiences in the Temen-ni-gru.

That thought brought Dante up short, because of course Vergil was still upstairs, waiting for Dante. Dante could only hope his brother, at least as exhausted as he was, had gone straight to sleep, and wouldn't miss him until morning. Then Nero started to finger him, and all thoughts of Vergil left Dante's mind as he leaned his head back against Nero's shoulder and groaned in pleasure.

Nero pulled Dante back against him, away from the wall, one hand still working between his buttocks while the other caressed his chest, and those stupid claws drew Dante's hands up over his head and held them there. Dante struggled against this for a few moments, but he was held fast and there was no breaking the claws' grip. Eventually Dante relaxed; why bother trying to escape? He was not being harmed here, quite the contrary. He was almost overwhelmed with pleasure, actually, his erection standing out from his body as Nero gently stroked his rim, and then just as gently began to work a finger into him.

"Fuck," said Dante. "Just do it if you're going to."

"If that's what you want," said Nero, and the finger withdrew. A few moments later something larger and warmer, slick with soap, pressed against Dante's rear. This was not going to be entirely pleasant, Dante realized, as soap was not the best lubricant in the world – it would sting and left a residue - but he was sufficiently out of his mind to not really care at this exact moment. Spreading his knees out as far as he could, Dante arched his back to press his body against Nero's.

It took a long, almost painful thrust for Nero to fully enter him, even though Dante relaxed as much as he could in anticipation. The soap slicked Nero down adequately, at least for this first bit, and the kid eased into him slowly enough, but there was still a little bite to the sensation. Dante hissed with the entwined pain and pleasure, the weight of Nero's cock inside him pressing intensely in all the right ways. When Nero ran his hands up Dante's chest, it felt amazing to be touched so decisively while still being restrained by the kid's demonic claws.

"Fuck," moaned Dante, and his hands were pulled back over his head and back behind Nero's neck. This was momentarily uncomfortable, and he tried to pull free, but just got yanked back into position for his trouble. "Damn, kid, if I'd known for sure ..."

"Shut up," said Nero. His voice was rough and low. He rolled his hips, and pulled back for a powerful thrust into Dante. "Just shut the fuck up or I'll make this hurt."

Dante almost thought he might like that at this point, but that edge of anger was back and he didn't want to press his luck. Maybe some other time. When Nero rammed into him again, he couldn't help a little gasp of pleasure, nor another with the next. It was incredible, how each thrust sent shockwaves through his lower body, shaking through his erection, and Dante was sure that there'd be fluid all over his cock if the water weren't washing it away. He did _not_ remember it being this good before.

One of Nero's hands drifted lower, toying gently with Dante's balls, and Dante groaned impotently as he tried to thrust into the whisper of contact from the kid's wrist. He was so fucking hard, so turned on, so ready to come. "Come on, Dante," said Nero, directly into Dante's ear. "Let me hear it. You want it, don't you. Say it."

"I want it," Dante moaned. "Damn, kid, fucking touch me."

"Beg me for it."

Dante obeyed without any thought at all. "Please," he said. "Please, Nero. Touch me, please."

"Hmmm." Nero's hand tugged tightly at Dante's testicles for a moment, and then he mercifully moved his fingers up to brush gently over the underside of Dante's erection just before firmly wrapping it in his hand. Dante cried out as Nero pounded into him from behind, pulling his erection with each forceful thrust, and he came hard. His spine bent, trying to bend over, but he was unable because of the hold on his wrists. He twisted hard, trying to escape the hold, but Nero only clenched down tighter with his spectral claws to control him.

Dante's cock became oversensitive in short order, but Nero didn't release him, so he murmured, "Let go, please. Please, Nero."

"Heh." Nero shifted his grip back down to Dante's balls, running his free hand over Dante's chest again. "That was fast. Not fucked in a while?"

"That's not it. Fuck." Dante wasn't going into that topic with Nero. The kid was still fucking him, still moving inside him, and Dante squirmed. "It just feels so ..."

"Yeah, well." Nero leaned against Dante's shoulder, nuzzling his upper arm and the back of his neck. The kid's voice was getting lower. "You feel pretty good yourself, _Uncle Dante."_

Shit. Dante tried again to get his hands free, and was again denied. "Let me go, okay?"

"Not until I'm finished," said Nero. "Now shut the fuck up and take it."

Dante would have leaned his forehead against the shower wall if he'd been able, but the kid's claws still trapped his wrists behind Nero's head and held him up and straight for whatever Nero wanted to do. The kid's intentions seemed to be nothing nefarious at least, just running hands over Dante's chest and belly, then down over the hollows of Dante's hips, while his cock moved in and out of Dante in a sharp and quick rhythm. Each thrust sent a fresh impact of pleasure through Dante's groin, and it was _way_ too intense in his post-orgasmic sensitivity; he was soon crying out softly with each one, helpless to do anything about it.

It seemed to take forever, but Nero finally came inside him, leaning against his back and harshly panting into his ear. Only then did he let Dante go, the great spectral talons gently easing him down until he was mostly supported by the shower wall. Nero kept his hips locked to Dante's rear, erection still inside him, and almost propped Dante up to keep him from going to his knees.

"Fuck," whispered Dante, absolutely worn out now. He was almost drifting now that the deep, almost unbearable pleasure had stopped; only the warm tile and Nero's claws kept him upright. "I am so fucking tired."

"I can tell." Nero pulled Dante a little more into the water and rinsed him off, and when his hand went down between Dante's buttocks once more there was a stinging sensation there. "Come on, sleepyhead. I assume _dad_ is in bed, so that means you're on the couch."

Dante was more than capable of sharing a bed with Vergil, but he didn't want to argue; Vergil was just as filthy as Dante had been, and he didn't necessarily want to cuddle up to that right now. So he just let Nero half-drag him out of the shower and tried not to fall over when the kid toweled him off.

The claws were not there when Nero walked around him, tucked away somewhere Dante supposed. He remembered getting backhanded by one and was not sorry to see them gone. "Stay here," said Nero, "and try not to fall asleep on me yet. I'm going to go get some clothes."

"Right," said Dante. "Clothes." But as soon as Nero walked out, naked, into the other room, Dante half-fell against the wall and slid down it to half-crouch on the floor, too out of it to even stay upright anymore.

He didn't know how long he was down, but Nero woke him back up with an annoyed yank. "Come on," said the kid, "put this on."

It was some of Dante's own clothing: a shirt and boxers, sufficient to cover him up enough to sleep and not much more. Dante drowsily let Nero help him get them on, and then was guided to the couch.

"I'm so fucking tired," he said again, once he was horizontal. He thought he'd never felt something as comfortable as just not having to be on his feet anymore. Nero, dressed in sweat pants and nothing else, blew out the candle and lay down on the floor next to the couch.

Dante was almost asleep when he heard the kid whisper, "I wish I could hate you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little omake courtesy of [Hellyfish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellyfish/pseuds/Hellyfish):
> 
>  


	2. Chapter 2

Voices woke Dante, although he tried to burrow down to escape them. At some point, someone had put a blanket over him, and he tucked it over his head to try to get away from the noise, and from the light of day coming in the windows.

It didn't work. "I'm not calling you _dad,"_ said Nero, and the kid sounded like he was about to punch someone.

"I didn't ask you to," said Vergil. Quietly. Disinterested.

"Fathers are there for their kids, okay? You were never there for me. So don't try to act all fatherly now."

"It had never crossed my mind."

Fuck. Dante was going to have to deal with this sooner or later, and he was irrevocably awake now. He pulled the blanket down a bit and looked out to see if violence was about to happen.

Nero was fully dressed and in the chair behind the desk, kicked back with his feet up, while Vergil was seated on the edge of the audio equipment a little distance away. Yamato was on his knee, peacefully sheathed, and Vergil was looking everywhere except at Nero.

When he spied Dante peeking out from under the blanket, Vergil said, "Glad you could join us."

Vergil was still dressed in his blue jacket and black clothing, everything _very much_ the worse for wear and his white spikes lank and drooping. Dante sat up and stretched, and said, "Why don't you have a shower or something, Vergil."

"I'll pass."

"You'll feel better. I sure do." Dante elected not to mention what had happened during his shower, and he hoped Nero didn't bring it up, either.

"You smell," said Nero. "I can smell you from here. What the hell did the two of you do, roll around in garbage like dogs?"

Something passed Vergil's expression, something dangerous and sharp. "Excuse me," he said, "but I didn't have access to modern facilities in the demon world."

"You have access to them now," said Nero. "Go clean up. Dante's still got enough clothes upstairs to outfit an army."

"Are you seriously suggesting I wear _Dante's_ clothes?"

"The alternative is to wear nothing," said Dante, "while we get yours to the dry cleaner."

Had Vergil any choice in the matter, Dante knew his twin would continue to argue at a minimum, or at least go elsewhere to brood angrily. But Dante had given him no choices. Giving Vergil choices led to people dying, so that had been foreclosed. Vergil's lips almost disappeared as he weighed his nonexistent options.

"Very well." He stood up. "I want the least colorful of Dante's clothing."

Nero stood up as well and laid a hand to his chest. "Of course, your fucking majesty, your wish is my command. Asshole."

"I can see you were raised properly," said Vergil. "Where is the shower, then?" When Dante and Nero both pointed to it, a disappointed frown crinkled Vergil's lip. "It's downstairs? With the bedroom upstairs? Does that make any sense?"

"No," said Dante, "but it's how the plumbing worked out. Go on, get cleaned up. The kid's right, right now you reek worse than I did last night."

"I'm probably going to have to burn the sheets upstairs," said Nero.

Vergil crossed the room to the bathroom and closed the door. Nero turned his frown on Dante. "So that's him," he said.

"You met him before."

"Not really. I kicked his ass only." Nero walked toward the stairs, and added, "Come on, come put some clothes on. Looking at you like that is putting ideas into my head."

So Dante followed Nero up the stairs and into the bedroom, where he discovered that most of his clothes had been moved to cardboard boxes, with Nero's stuff in the chest of drawers and the closet. "You just assumed I was never coming back," said Dante, as he pulled on a pair of black pants.

"What reason did you give me to think otherwise?" said Nero. "I know you could have opened a gateway with Yamato anytime you wanted, but you stayed down there for whatever reason. After a couple of months, what was I supposed to think?"

"It wasn't that easy," said Dante. "It's not like Yamato belongs to me, and anyway I needed to make sure that Vergil wasn't going to go killing people again. I needed him under control."

"Did you accomplish that?"

"I hope so."

It was Dante who picked out clothes for his twin: black pants, a black shirt. No color in them whatsoever. Dante figured that would make Vergil the least unhappy. For himself, he put on his older leather coat over the black pants and the shirt he was already wearing, the coat that he'd decided one day was too dirty to wear and not worth taking to the cleaners. It was considerably less dirty than the one he'd brought back with him from the demon world; in comparison, this one felt downright refreshing.

They returned downstairs, and a few minutes later the water stopped running in the bathroom. Dante went over to give Vergil his clothes, and opened the bathroom door.

"Dante," said Nero. "That's totally rude."

"He won't mind," said Dante. The bathroom was warm and steamy, and Vergil was stepping out of the shower. Dante closed the bathroom door behind him.

"Maybe I do mind," said Vergil. He reached for the towel on the hook, and wiped over his face, then scrubbed some of the water out of his hair.

Dante sighed, and went over to take the towel away from his twin. "Don't get into an argument with Nero, okay?" He ran the towel over Vergil's pale back, then down his waist to his hips.

"I'm not," said Vergil, calmly enough. "He seems to want to argue with me, though."

"Can you blame him?" Dante turned Vergil around and used the towel on his brother's chest. "He spent his whole life wondering if he even had a family, and now here you suddenly are."

"I'd think he'd be happy to know where he comes from."

A memory of Nero's rage the night before, and the reason for it, came uneasily to Dante's mind. "No," said Dante. "He's not happy to know where he comes from. He's furious at me, especially, for sort-of-kind-of knowing and not telling him."

Vergil quirked an elegant eyebrow at Dante. "Why _didn't_ you tell him, if you knew already?"

"Because I wasn't sure. And because ... I didn't want to change things between us." Enough of that; Vergil didn't have to know the details of Dante screwing Nero. As little as Vergil might have felt like a father, Dante doubted he really wanted to know about how Dante had taken advantage of his offspring. To distract his twin, Dante leaned in for a soft kiss, and Vergil sort of sighed a little before complying with the request, and he complied again when Dante drew him into an embrace.

"If he keeps provoking me," said Vergil, and Dante interrupted with a deeper kiss.

"I'll talk to him," murmured Dante against Vergil's tongue, and then he pulled back. "I'll get him to stop messing with you. Why don't you go get something to eat, or take a walk or something while I do that?"

"I'm not really his father by any measure except a technical one," said Vergil, drawing back and out of Dante's embrace. "I don't need to keep being reminded of it."

"I'll talk to him."

Once Vergil was dressed, down to his grimy boots, and they'd left the bathroom, Dante went to the safe behind the bar to get some cash. "Vergil is going out for breakfast," said Dante. "I hope you don't mind."

"I reckon you want some pizza," said Nero from his seat back behind the desk. A spectral hand abruptly materialized out of nowhere and picked up the phone. "I'll order it for you."

Vergil stared. Dante pressed a twenty into Vergil's hand. "There's a diner down the street," said Dante, "and if you wait a few minutes there are a bunch of places that open for lunch in the central business district. Go outside, go to the end of the street, turn right, and walk until you find a bunch of people. And Vergil, do _not_ kill anybody."

"I'll ... try to refrain," said Vergil, finally tearing his eyes off Nero's talon. Dante wasn't sure what the deal was, because it wasn't like this was the first time Vergil had seen Nero deploy the things, but maybe his brother had been distracted during that brutal take-down on the crown of the Qliphoth. "I make no promises." Dante glared, until Vergil shook his head. "All right, I promise."

"Good." Dante was tempted to kiss Vergil before sending him out into the world, but that would be too much information for Nero. So he just guided Vergil to the door and saw him out it.

Then he rounded on Nero, who was scowling with the receiver still in his glowing demonic claw. "Do you want pizza or not, _Uncle Dante?"_

"Yes," said Dante. "Do you have to make a thing out of this?"

Nero transferred the phone receiver to one of his human hands, and dialed the phone with his demonic one so that he wouldn't have to move. "Yes," he echoed, and then into the phone, he said, "Yeah, this is Devil May Cry. I'd like Dante's usual please. Yeah. Yeah. Hell, can you believe it?" Then Nero laughed, and added, "That's fine. Thanks." He tossed the phone back onto the cradle, and said. "Twenty-five minutes."

Dante sat down on the couch and spread his arms on the back of it. "This isn't a thing, Nero. I didn't really know. Not really. And Vergil didn't know. He had no idea he had a kid on Fortuna."

"How could he not know?"

"Because she didn't tell him. It was ..." How much of this was Dante's story to tell, and how much should he keep quiet for Vergil to tell or not as he chose? "A fling, you might say. Vergil can tell you more, obviously. But he left Fortuna and didn't know she was pregnant with you."

Nero's scowl deepened, creasing between his brows. "That's bullshit," he said.

"No, it isn't. And Vergil is a little fragile right now, so I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't hassle him."

"Hassle him." Nero stood up, his feathered talons spread out behind him in angry threat. "Hassle _him._ How about the hassle to _me,_ growing up in an orphanage because my family fucking abandoned me?"

"I can't speak for your mother, but your father didn't abandon you on purpose. Okay? Can you believe me, at least a little bit?"

For a moment, Nero looked very dire; then he sat down and propped his feet back up on the desk with a thud. The spectral claws folded up under his back, the talons themselves hooking over his shoulders. "No," he said. "But if you want me to, I'll stop talking about it. I'm still angry, though, and if he gives me shit I'm going to take him to the floor again."

"I don't think he will," said Dante, relieved. "I've trashed him enough times that I don't think he'll be giving anybody any shit from now on."

"He'd better not." Nero raised his demonic arms over his head, stretching them ostentatiously before settling them on his back once again.

Dante would give Vergil this: it was hard not to look at the kid's glowing claws. It was such a bizarre manifestation of demonic power, the feathered, almost wing-like appendages that the kid could display or conceal as the mood struck him. Dante had never seen anything like it, and didn't know what to make of it. Dante's father had been an insectoid demon, but Nero didn't take after that sort of trigger at all. Nor did the manifestation of the otherworldly arms seem to be directly linked to the kid's trigger anyway. Dante remembered the strength in the backhand he'd been dealt, and the strength in the restraint he'd been subjected to the night before. He really didn't want to deal with Nero when the kid was angry anymore.

Not unless Nero was willing to hold him down for a good fucking again, anyway. Dante hadn't exactly minded that.

Although Nero had picked up the pile of disgusting clothes from the bathroom while Dante had slept, his boots were still on the floor near the desk and Dante went to put them back on. He didn't even get them into his hand before he could smell them, and he thought about just incinerating them instead. "Hey, kid," he said, "you didn't throw away my old boots, did you?"

"I didn't throw away anything of yours, I just put it into boxes. Check upstairs."

So Dante went to do that, and Nero followed him up the stairs for reasons that became clear the moment they were in the bedroom together, and the kid sidled up behind him.

"We have twenty minutes," said Nero. He put his hands on Dante's shoulders, ran them down his arms. "Or however long _dad_ is out."

"I thought you weren't going to call him that," said Dante, wary.

"I'll call him whatever I want, and neither of you can stop me."

A second set of hands came to rest on Dante's hips, implacable. "We can't use the bed," warned Dante. "Vergil was in it all gross."

"No shit," said Nero. "He didn't even bother taking his boots off, it looks like. It's okay. I don't mind having you on the floor." The kid pressed his body up against Dante's back, warm and strong, and began to kiss the back of Dante's neck.

"So you're having _me_ again, eh?" Dante was half-hard almost immediately just thinking about it. Damn, that had been _good._ "When'd you learn to do that?"

"Do you think I've just been laying around waiting on you?" Nero turned Dante around, and began to nuzzle the side of his neck, the spectral claws coming down on Dante's hips again. "I have needs, too."

"Well, I'll only let you if you pin me down," said Dante, challenging.

A half-smirk crossed Nero's face, and a moment later he'd shoved the older hunter backward. Dante tried to take a half-step back to regain his footing, but one of Nero's claws was there at the back of his knee; the only thing that kept Dante from clocking his head on the floor was Nero's other claw, catching him and letting him down easy.

The kid was on top of him instantly, his tongue aggressively forced into Dante's mouth. Not that Dante resisted, exactly, especially once he felt Nero's hard cock through their clothes, pressing against his hip. Shit, he could remember vividly how it had felt to be fucked by this kid, and if he could get that again in twenty minutes ...

"Damn," said Nero, drawing back a little to whisper against Dante's lip. "You didn't shave at all in hell, did you?"

"Maybe I did a little," said Dante. "All we had was Yamato though ..."

Nero rubbed his cheek against Dante's. "You're so scruffy."

"I'll shave later if you want."

"No, I like it like this. You need to comb your hair, though." Before Dante could say anything about that, Nero's tongue was in his mouth again.

It felt _amazing_ to have the kid grinding their groins together, the friction powerful even through their clothes. Dante ran his hands up Nero's back, then down again and out across the backs of the kid's second set of arms. Despite how translucent they looked, they _felt_ completely corporeal, the feathers stiff at the tips, downy at the base. But then Nero's human hands were pulling Dante's arms up and out of reach, and the spectral talons pinned them to the floor on either side of him.

Dante squirmed, and Nero held him tighter, and there was no way for Dante to break the claws' hold without really fighting back and he just wasn't into that right now. He felt a lot better today, and thought he might be able to successfully defy the kid if he wanted, but why ask for trouble? It wasn't like this was the first time he'd spread his legs for someone, and if he was going to do it again for anyone, it might as well be Nero.

But then Nero released him, and the kid pulled away a bit, and said, "Get out of your clothes. Now." He stood up himself and started to strip down, his jacket landing hard next to Dante's head.

There was no way Dante was saying no. He wriggled out of his pants and jacket, and pulled his shirt off over his head, and then watched as Nero did likewise. Nero caught him looking, and stared directly back at him, defiant, as he yanked off his shirt and dropped his pants.

The kid looked so damned good. Dante hadn't gotten a good look at him the night before, and maybe his memory deceived him but he didn't recall Nero's body being so whiplash strong. It had only been half a year, but being the principal devil hunter in the area seemed to agree with the kid.

"Like what you see?" asked Nero, as he kicked his pants away. The kid's erection stood out from his body, eager and ready, and Dante was almost out of his mind just looking at it. Nero ran one of his talons down his own side and hip and thigh. "I'm your fucking nephew, you know."

"I know," said Dante. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"It's fucked up that you want to screw me anyway. Aren't there laws about incest?"

"I don't know. Probably."

"Pfft." Nero walked over to the bedside table and pulled a tube of lubricant out of it, and returned to go down to his knees and crawl up Dante's body; the feathered claws were held up above his back and ready. He hooked one arm under one of Dante's thighs and forced it up as Dante put his hands on either side of the kid's face and drew him down for another kiss. This _was_ fucked up, but how could he resist? Nero was damned hot, and it wasn't like the kid was _more_ related to him than Vergil. He had no idea how Nero would react if he ever found out about Dante and Vergil, and he had no intentions of ever telling him, but having broken the taboo in a much more extreme way made it easier with Nero.

That didn't explain why Nero still wanted to have sex, though, now that he knew. But as far as Dante had determined nobody could understand or explain the mind of Nero, so that was going to have to remain an unanswered question, probably.

Nero kissed Dante easily enough, and one blue talon went through Dante's hair, gently carding out a few of the tangles, but with his free hand the kid was rubbing the inside of Dante's raised thigh and up the hollow of his hip. He eventually broke the kiss and followed his hand with his lips and tongue, licking his way from Dante's knee up to the join of his crotch. When Dante tried to run his own fingers through Nero's hair, however, the great talons snatched him by the wrists and held him down, arms wide, allowing him no freedom whatsoever.

"Hold still," murmured Nero against Dante's skin. The side of the kid's face brushed against Dante's erection, and it was maddening. Then Nero did it again, clearly deliberately this time, and the light scratch of the kid's cheek drew a thready moan from Dante's throat. "I'm not done with you." Gentle lips moved up the underside of Dante's cock, tracing the line of the large vein.

Dante could see where this was heading, and while he wasn't opposed, exactly, he did like to touch his partner while he got blown. The claws that held him, though, were ridiculously strong, way stronger than Nero's normal hands and arms. Dante could barely even twist in their grip, much less get free without a great deal more effort than he was willing to put in.

"I told you to hold still," said Nero, and he yanked Dante's arms even farther apart, pinning the older hunter down with ruthless efficiency. Then he opened his mouth on Dante's erection, licking up from the base to the tip and taking it into his mouth. Dante could do nothing but just groan and try to raise his head to see what was going on.

As the kid sucked down his cock, Dante tried to relax into it, but he was still trying instinctually to run his hands through Nero's hair, so he kept trying to pull his wrists free and kept failing. Nero made a half-humming, half-growling sound while he serviced Dante that was just outrageous in how good it felt. The vibration went straight through Dante's erection, almost coiling in the root of his cock.

"Nero," said Dante, panting a little as he rested the back of his head against the floor. "Let me go."

"Hmph." Nero let Dante's cock slide out of his mouth, so he could say, "Why should I do that? You asked me to pin you down, so that's what I'm doing."

Well, that was true, but how could Dante explain that being almost helpless here was ramping his arousal up way too fast? That Nero's humming was going to drive him crazy before it made him come? Dante wasn't sure he wanted to admit either of those things. He settled for tugging again at his right wrist and saying, "I want to fuck you."

"Oh." Nero pounced, lunging up Dante's body to settle atop him. "That's _definitely_ not going to happen. You're taking it or nobody is. We can go straight back downstairs and wait for your pizza and for _daddy dearest_ to get back. That's your alternative."

Shit. Dante knocked the back of his head against the floor. He was almost desperately turned on by this point, and didn't want to turn the kid down, and he _did_ kind of want to get fucked again. That had felt so fucking good. But it felt weird to just lay here, trapped in he kid's claws, and take it and do nothing. It felt selfish, almost. "Just let me go," he said, "and you can fuck me. Let me touch you."

Nero looked down at him with no expression whatsoever for a long fifteen seconds, long enough for Dante to wonder what was going through the kid's mind. But then the spectral claws loosened their grip and Dante was able to pull free.

Immediately Dante shoved his hands up into the kid's short spikes of hair and pulled him down into a deep kiss. Nero kissed back, hungrily, eagerly, and his demonic hands landed on the floor on either side of Dante's head, supporting the kid's weight so he could tangle his own human hands in Dante's hair. Nero's skin was hot, and soon became a little sticky with sweat as they kissed, and ground their groins together, and panted into each other's mouths.

"This is so fucked up," murmured Nero.

"You can stop if you want," said Dante. He stroked his hands down Nero's body, pulling the kid close by the waist and then running his left hand over Nero's rear. _Damn,_ the kid's body felt good, so strong and hard.

"Not unless you want me to." Nero growled a little and pulled back a bit to hike Dante's knee up again. "Speak now or forever hold your peace."

"Go for it."

There was a lot of lubricant in the tube, and a lot of it got onto Nero's cock and inside Dante. That felt pretty fantastic, too, Nero's fingers slick and moving inside him, but Dante wanted more than that, so he whispered encouragement and mauled Nero's hair and shoulders as the kid prepped him. "Come on," he murmured. "Come on."

Finally Nero seemed satisfied and he wiped his fingers off on Dante's shirt, putting his arms under Dante's knees and forcing the older hunter's thighs up against his chest. "When's the last time you got fucked, _Uncle Dante,"_ said Nero viciously. "Aside from last night."

Dante thought about it for about a second before he felt Nero's cock pressing against him, and then that diverted his attention and he completely forgot the question. The kid was not gentle, exactly, and he shoved Dante's thighs into his chest with a strength that brooked no resistance, but there was enough lubricant that it didn't hurt at all and Dante could just close his eyes and feel it. He reached out with his right hand, groping until he found the feathered talon bracing Nero, and closed his fingers around it.

Nero leaned down with all his weight until his lips met Dante's, and he whispered, "Want me to hold you down again?"

"No," said Dante, and then he reconsidered. "Yes." So Nero laid his human hands on the floor, freeing up his demonic claws to yank Dante's arms out to either side, and then force them up over his head. That was weirdly liberating, for Dante, to be able to squirm and pull and yank and be unable to move, and Dante laid his head back on the floor and groaned. Nero lipped his throat, and started to rock his hips, drawing back, driving in, drawing back once more. Each thrust knocked the breath right out of Dante.

With his eyes closed, nothing existed for Dante but the feel of the kid's body, the ramming pleasure of their coupling, the claws holding down his arms and the weight of Nero pushing his knees against his chest. His own erection, trapped between their bodies, received a miniscule stroke with each roll of Nero's hips, and that was enough to set Dante's blood singing. He panted for air, feeling like he wasn't able to get enough, as the world narrowed down to his body and the rapidly ramping pleasure.

When he came, it was at the top of a spike of sensation, and it drew a hoarse cry from his throat that he was barely conscious of making. Nero made a rough sound, and a few thrusts later Dante felt the kid come as well; he lifted his head a touch to find Nero's lips with his own, and found himself in a deep kiss.

"I loved you, you stupid fucker," mumbled Nero around Dante's tongue. "And you knew, the whole fucking time."

Dante tugged at his wrists. "Let me go. Nero." A little shifting of Nero's weight, and the hold was released; Nero let Dante's legs go, drawing back and out of him, and going up onto his own knees. Dante stretched, straightening out his back, and then he pulled the kid down for another long kiss.

Nero tolerated this for a minute or so, but then laid a hand on Dante's chest. "Hey," he said. "Pizza, remember?"

"Mmmm." Dante was so far beyond hungry he no longer even felt it anymore. "How much time do we have?"

"No idea. Should probably head downstairs." Nero ran his hand down Dante's chest and over his belly, then looked around until his eyes landed on Dante's shed shirt. The kid picked it up and used it clean his groin, and then tossed it to Dante. "There are a billion more in that box," he said, pointing. "We're doing laundry today, so stick it in with the rest of the clothes you've destroyed."

"Hah," said Dante, going into one of the boxes for a fresh shirt.

The pizza had not yet arrived when they made it back downstairs, but Vergil had. He was perched on the audio equipment again, Yamato primly in his hand, and he glanced up when Dante and Nero came down the stairs.

"I was starting to wonder where you'd gone off to," said Vergil. "Nothing is open yet except that diner, and I decided I would rather eat pizza than go in there and risk my health."

Dante felt his ears go hot, and he hoped like hell that Vergil hadn't heard anything, and that he wouldn't get close enough to smell the scent of sex on Dante. Nero just glared at Vergil and went to throw himself into the desk chair where he'd started out the morning.

"Feel free to fuck off again, _father,"_ said Nero. "If you don't like my hospitality, there's nothing keeping you here."

Vergil drew in a breath to reply, and Dante knew what was coming; his brother then closed his mouth again, leaving the words unsaid. Dante tried to smooth it over by saying, "This is technically my place, kid."

"You weren't here, so it became _my_ place. If you don't like that, you can fuck the hell off, too, _Uncle Dante."_

There came a knock at the door, and then the door opened a crack. "Pizza," said the young lady who let herself in.

Nero's spectral arms were still manifest, folded behind himself with the claws on his shoulders. He didn't bother putting them away before going over to the doorway to pay, and Dante expected some kind of comment from the pizza delivery driver but there was nothing. Nero gave her some money and told her to keep the change, and then he threw the pizza box onto the desk.

"Have at it," he said.

The smell of the pizza hit Dante like a wave of ambrosia from the gods themselves, and his stomach, empty for months, abruptly remembered that it was supposed to get fed sometimes and twisted inside him. But Dante warily held back until Vergil had picked up a slice and returned to his seat, lest his brother get close enough to scent him.

"Come on," said Nero, pushing the pizza box with one of his talons. "Come on, boy, come get it." He whistled like one might whistle to a dog.

"Hah," said Dante, going in for a piece. "You can't insult me, kid, don't bother trying."

"Insulting you would imply I cared enough about your self-esteem to want to lower it," said Nero. "So what are you two planning to do with yourselves now? Just going to lurk around here until the next opportunity to kill half a city presents itself?"

Dante might have had a reply to that, but he bit down into the pizza while Nero was speaking and the pure pleasure of it made him completely lose track of the conversation. He had literally forgotten how good pizza tasted, and he was suddenly so ridiculously hungry that he could have wolfed down the entire pie by himself.

"I have no plans to kill anyone," said Vergil quietly.

"So what _are_ your plans, then?"

There was a long stretch of silence, while Dante stuffed the entire slice of pizza into his mouth and Vergil considered the question. "I'm not sure," said Vergil eventually. "It wasn't my idea to come here in the first place."

"So Dante dragged you kicking and screaming, I guess," said Nero.

"In a manner of speaking."

"Welp," said Nero, throwing himself back into the chair and propping up his feet, "I guess this gives us an opportunity to get to know each other."

"I ... suppose it does," said Vergil, and he glanced toward Dante before taking a delicate bite of his pizza. Dante just shrugged. This, at least, was Vergil's problem to solve.


	3. Chapter 3

It took very little to persuade Nero to let Dante and Vergil have the upstairs bedroom, at least until they decided what to do with themselves. The kid practically insisted, in fact, after ascertaining that they didn't mind sharing. "I'll sleep on the couch," said Nero, and Dante was hardly going to argue that. After roughing it for five months in the underworld, he was looking forward to sleeping in a bed for once.

Sleeping wasn't on Vergil's immediate agenda, however. After bidding Nero a good night, Dante and his brother went upstairs, and Vergil shut the door. "I want to go to Fortuna," said Vergil.

"What for?" Dante dropped his jacket on the floor and sat down on the edge of the bed to take off his boots.

Vergil stood in the middle of the room with one arm wrapped around himself and Yamato in the other hand. It took him a moment to respond. "I ... want to find out what happened to her."

"Probably too late for that," said Dante. He tossed his boots in the general direction of the corner. "You know she's probably dead. Do you think she would have dumped Nero if she were still alive?" When Vergil went silent again, Dante added, "That's a real question. You knew her. I didn't."

"No," said Vergil. "I don't think she would have."

"So what's the point?"

"I still want to know."

Dante sighed and put his hands behind himself to lean back. "There's probably nothing to know, but I'll think about it."

There came a sharp tug at the edge of Dante's perception, a hard resistance against his control. It relaxed after a moment, but Dante shook his head. "I didn't say no, Vergil. I said I'd think about it."

"I don't need your permission," said Vergil, with a hint of leashed anger, but they both knew that he did, so Dante didn't bother to refute it.

"Come here." Dante extended one hand, and Vergil unfolded himself enough to take it. Drawing his brother down onto the bed with him, Dante said, "I didn't say no." He put his hands on Vergil's face and pulled him into a soft kiss.

"I don't need your permission," said Vergil again, the anger gone now, replaced with resignation. It took him a few moments but he began to return the kiss, parting his lips for Dante's tongue and running his free hand down Dante's side to his hip. Dante pressed him backward, until Vergil was laying on his back on the bed and Dante could straddle him on his knees.

Running his hands down Vergil's chest, and then sliding them up under the hem of the borrowed shirt, Dante said, "What would you do if we went to Fortuna and found out she's dead?"

"Probably nothing. I just want to know." Vergil let Dante take his shirt off him, and then buried his free hand in Dante's shaggy hair as Dante dropped to kiss his brother's collarbone. "I think I deserve to know."

"I'd think Nero would have figured it out if it were easy information to get," murmured Dante against Vergil's skin. "She probably died in childbirth."

"You don't know that." Vergil raised his chin as Dante licked up to his throat, and he made a soft sound as Dante deeply tongued the tendons on the side of his neck. "That feels really good, Dante."

"Mmmm." Dante kissed around to the other side and raked his teeth over his twin's throat, following it up with more of his tongue. He eased himself down until he was almost laying on top of Vergil, and he settled his hips over his twin's. Yes, there, he felt an erection waking between Vergil's legs. "I want you," he whispered wetly. "Do you want me?"

"Yes," said Vergil.

So Dante took Yamato away and set it against the wall, and then went back for a deeper kiss. Vergil's hands went under the hem of his shirt, pulling it up to get it off him, and then stroked over his back, down his sides, up his chest, before deftly unfastening his pants. When Vergil got his hardening erection free and gave it a hard two-handed stroke, Dante groaned into his brother's mouth.

That was when there came two quick knocks on the door just before it opened, and Nero was saying, "Hey, you two aren't asleep yet, are y--"

Dante quickly sat up onto his knees, horrified, but it was far too late; Nero was just standing in the door staring, eyes darting from Dante to Vergil and back. Then the kid's expression closed down.

"This explains _a lot,"_ said Nero, coldly.

"That was very rude," said Vergil, sitting up with Dante still in his lap.

"Look, kid," said Dante, his stomach clenching in anxiety. "It's not ..."

"Not what?" interrupted Nero. "Not what it looks like? It's not that you were making out with _my father?_ Who is also _your brother?"_

Vergil nudged Dante to get out of his lap, and Dante put his cock away and zipped his pants back up before doing so. "You wouldn't understand," said Vergil.

"Oh, I think I do," said Nero, and that dangerous fury was darkening his voice again. "I think I understand a whole lot of things a lot better than I did five minutes ago. Maybe it's a good thing you weren't around for me, _dad,_ because this whole family is obviously fucked in the head."

This was a disaster. Dante hadn't intended to tell Nero _at all,_ and letting him find out like _this_ was even worse. The expression on the kid's face was downright homicidal. "Nero," said Dante, and he helplessly groped for words. "It's not ... you don't get it."

"Oh, I get it, all right," said Nero. "Well, I'll let the two of you get back to what you were doing. I have an emergency to see to, and I guess neither of you wants to come along. Sorry for interrupting." He slammed the door shut, and then Dante heard him clomp back down the stairs.

"Well," said Vergil, as Dante wiped his hands over his face. "What do you suggest now?"

"This is so bad," said Dante. What was Nero thinking? Would he _tell_ anyone? That was the absolute worst scenario: that Nero went to Nico or Trish or someone and just flat out told them that he'd caught Dante in a sexual position with Vergil. "I have to go talk to him," said Dante. "Stay here."

"I'll go, too," said Vergil, and he picked up his shirt to put it back on. "He's my son, after all."

Sure, and let Vergil find out that Dante was also sleeping with Nero. That was a _fantastic_ idea. "No," said Dante. "Stay here, okay? I'll talk to him."

"He's _my_ son," said Vergil again.

"And he's not going to listen to you just because of that."

Then Dante heard the front door of the shop slam shut, and knew it was too late; the kid had left, for his emergency job probably. Fuck.

Dante ran a hand through his hair, and said, "This is my fault."

"You're right," said Vergil. "This _is_ your fault."

"Thanks so much for the reassurance."

"Everything is now your responsibility," said Vergil. "It can't possibly be mine, not anymore."

"Not helping." Fuck. With the kid gone, there was nothing Dante could do until probably morning, or whenever Nero got back. And who knew what the kid would do between now and then. It could be anything. "If you're tired, why don't you sleep?" said Dante. "I'll wait up for the kid to come home."

"I'm no more tired than you are," said Vergil. "And, for the third time, Nero is my son and I should be the one to talk to him."

"I know him better."

"Then we'll both wait up for him."

* * *

It turned out that neither waited up for Nero, _per se;_ the kid was out all night and part of the morning, and Vergil fell asleep against Dante's shoulder around five in the morning. Dante drifted off not long after, and he didn't wake until it was well light out and fingers were moving through his hair.

"Dante," said Vergil. "Wake up. Nero's car just pulled up."

Dante sat up, stretched a bit, and then rose as Nero opened the front door. The kid looked exhausted, but his eyes narrowed when he spotted Dante, and creased into a frown when his gaze found Vergil, seated with Yamato in his hand.

"So," he said. "I guess you two want to talk to me about something. Let me see if I can guess what that something might be." He hefted Red Queen off his back and crossed the room with it. "Could it be the fact that this family is full of fucking incest?"

"It's not like what you think," said Dante.

Nero set his sword down on the desk. "Who else are you fucking, Dante? Are there any other relatives I need to know about? Any cousins, maybe? Have you ever slept with someone you _weren't_ related to?"

"Look," said Dante. "I'm sorry this surprised you."

Nero slammed his hand down and turned. _"Surprised_ me. No, Dante, it _surprised_ me when you said you were my fucking uncle. This, oddly enough, doesn't surprise me even slightly. In fact, it explains everything about how you _knew_ you were related to me and you _still_ wanted to fuck me."

Oh. That. As the bottom dropped out of his stomach, Dante recalled why he hadn't originally wanted Vergil down here for this conversation.

"Dante," said Vergil slowly. "What exactly _were_ the two of you doing upstairs yesterday morning?"

"Oh, I guess he didn't tell you about that, did he, _father,"_ said Nero. "Your darling brother decided to seduce me two years ago, even though he _knew ..."_

"I didn't know!" said Dante. "I ... sort of suspected. But I wasn't sure!" This was so awful. So awful. Dante put a hand to his belly, nauseated.

"So yeah," said Nero to Vergil. "Yesterday while we thought you were out, I was nailing Dante to the floor. Because damn me to hell, I still love the asshole even though he lied to me every damned day for two years."

Vergil was ... unhappy. Dante could see it in the whiteness at the edges of Vergil's lips, the sudden stillness in his posture. "I see," said Vergil.

"But of course, he wasn't really fucking _me,"_ said Nero furiously. "I see that now, he was really fucking a substitute _you._ Maybe I look enough like you? So he couldn't have you for a while, and therefore he came to me to get a piece of you."

"Nero," said Dante, because that wasn't at all what had drawn him to the kid, but Nero just chopped a hand through the air to silence him.

"Shut the fuck up," said Nero. "Adults are talking here, Dante."

But Vergil was getting more and more upset the more Nero talked, and probably only Dante could see it. So Dante tried once more to cut in. "Kid, you've got it all wrong. I care about you. I really do! It's not that you're a substitute for Vergil ..."

Nero's translucent feathered talons abruptly loomed behind him, the claws angrily spread as though to grab and rend anything in reach. "Stop _lying to me,"_ the kid said, and it was only then that Dante realized that Nero was more than enraged, he was also on the edge of tears. Possibly the rage was the only thing keeping him from breaking down. "Stop fucking _lying to me_ all the time!"

"Kid," said Dante, as gently as he could under the circumstances. "I'm not lying, you're not just a substitute for Vergil. But Vergil and I ..."

The reach on those talons was a hell of a lot longer than Dante expected it to be; he was on his back on the floor with his face stinging before he even saw Nero move. Then the kid had Red Queen in his hand again and was flicking the weapon to spray propellant across the blade.

"No, no, no," said Dante, trying to get upright. "Not in here, Nero. Nero, you'll set the building on fire."

"Maybe I wouldn't mind that," said Nero, but he hesitated before igniting the propellant, and then set the sword back down on the desk, un-lit.

Dante rolled up to his knees, rubbing the spot on his cheek where he _might_ have actually sustained a bruise, and looked up at Vergil, who was just standing there watching all of this. "What," he said to Vergil, "no help from you?"

"You want me to help?" asked Vergil coolly, and then without waiting for a response he nodded sharply. "Very well. Nero."

"Don't get involved in this, _father,"_ said Nero, his left hand and left talons both clenching.

"Nonsense," said Vergil. He approached Nero and unsheathed Yamato, offering the sword hilt-first to his son. "Use this instead."

That ... Dante stared as Nero slowly extended a hand to take the weapon, and Vergil just fucking let him have it and then stepped back, and holy hell Dante was going to _talk_ with his twin about this later but it would have to be later because Nero was now armed with something that wouldn't burn the building down and he was looking very, very, very angry.

"Nero," said Dante, half in warning and half in surrender, but Nero hauled back with Yamato and slashed at Dante's midsection, a slice he just barely caught by materializing his own sword in his hand. But that left him with no time to intercept Nero's left talon, the claws fisted up to punch Dante directly in the side of the head, and that sent him rolling again.

"Just run him through with it," said Vergil helpfully. "Don't bother trying to take his head off, that won't work anyway."

"Whose side are you on?" asked Dante, dragging himself to his feet.

A gentle tug of resistance came from Vergil, but it was just a test of the restraint, not a serious attempt to get free. "My own, of course," said Vergil.

"Of course." Dante stepped to one side to avoid another punch from Nero's talons, and that put him dangerously close to Yamato when the kid attempted to follow his father's advice. Dante turned on instinct, and felt the flat of the blade pass his belly as it sliced through his shirt. This put him conveniently close to Nero's face, and Dante punched the kid hard with his free hand to knock him backward and away.

Nero skidded across the floor on his feet, nearly hitting the desk before he caught himself, and then he flexed his talons and swiped Yamato through the air. "I don't know what's wrong with you," he said, "but I'm going to try to cure it with head trauma."

Now, of course, Dante had a choice. He could play this for real, and probably work the kid into a froth that might actually overwhelm him, and destroy the entire building in the process. Or he could basically take a fall, preserve the structure, and wind up with a similar result without all the collateral damage.

And, really, this _was_ all his fault. He was the one who had decided to sleep with Nero, decided that his desire for rough sex was more important than the kid's right to know who his partner was. He was the one who had missed it when Nero fell for him. He was the one who had fallen back into Vergil's arms the moment his brother became available again, forgetting Nero entirely. He'd done Nero a great disservice, and probably he deserved what was coming to him.

So the next time Nero tried to slam him with those spectral claws, Dante carelessly dodged the first strike straight into the second, and took a violent whack to the temple that made his vision blur. An instant later pain ripped through his abdomen and he reacted by instinct, slashing with his own sword at the source of the pain, only to have Nero rip Yamato back out of him and stab him a second time through the chest, pinning him by the sword to the wall behind him.

"Stay there," said Nero, giving Yamato another hard shove to make sure it was securely anchored. Dante gasped with the agony of it, his hand running up the blade to the hilt, trying to grasp the sword; his fingers were slick with blood and they slipped off the wrapped hilt. Nero swatted his hand away and then punched him once more with his otherworldly hand.

"Hmmm," said Vergil.

Catching his breath was now a challenge for Dante, and he let his sword evaporate so he could just lean on the sword between his ribs. Blood filled his left lung and he coughed it up, but Nero wasn't attacking him anymore so he decided to just stay quietly where he was and let the kid cool off.

"What is it?" asked Vergil, and Dante glanced up to see Nero confronting his father.

Nero reached out with one glowing blue claw and stroked it through Vergil's hair, slowly, tentatively. "You look just like him," said Nero.

"What a surprise," said Vergil.

"How about you? How fucked in the head are you, _father?_ Would you sleep with me, too, just for the hell of it?"

"I ... don't really see why I would," said Vergil.

"You sleep with your own brother. Why not your kid?"

"It's different with Dante."

"How so?" Nero's lip twisted with anger. "You're identical twins, aren't you? _He_ might as well be my father, as well as you."

Well. Dante hadn't really thought of that before, but it was true. He coughed again and spit up more blood, resting with one hand on Yamato's blade.

"That doesn't mean I'd do something he did."

Nero laid his talons on Vergil's shoulders, pulling his father closer, which Vergil did not resist very much, moving a little stiffly but otherwise compliant. Once they were very close together, Nero looked Vergil in the eye for what felt like a very long time. Long enough for Dante to start to count his heartbeats by the way they pulsed blood into his lung. Vergil just stood there, looking mildly curious but nothing else.

Then Nero leaned closer and touched their lips, and Vergil started to say something but was silenced when Nero said, "Shut the fuck up." It wasn't as viciously-spoken as most of the other things Nero had said in the past half hour, but it nevertheless made Vergil rethink whatever he'd been about to say.

Dante tried to get his breathing under control as Nero gently kissed his father, and Vergil just kind of stood there for it at first. But then Vergil's eye slid over to where Dante was pinned against the wall, and it narrowed down, and Dante said, "Vergil, wait ..." only to get backhanded once again by one of Nero's talons. The strike put more blood into his mouth, and Dante leaned back against the wall and panted for air.

"If that's what you want," said Vergil, and he put his hands around Nero's shoulders, pulling him in for a deeper kiss.

Nero made a pained little sound, leaning into the kiss as both hands and spectral claws went around his father, and Dante couldn't look away. "You even taste like him," Nero murmured. "Let's close this fucked up family circle."

"All right," said Vergil.

They shifted to put Vergil's back to the desk, and now all Dante could really see was Nero's back, with Vergil's arms around his shoulders, the glowing otherworldly talons arched over Nero's head. The way Nero moved, however, and the way he groaned, told Dante that he was kissing Vergil's throat, maybe licking or using his teeth, and Vergil had his head thrown back for it, and Nero was putting one hand up Vergil's shirt, and Vergil ... 

Dante grabbed at Yamato, wanting to tear himself free, but without even looking his way Nero smacked Yamato's hilt to drive it deeper. So Dante gave up, and just choked on his own blood as Vergil's hands went up under Nero's coat. Dante knew perfectly well how irresistible the kid's body was; he doubted Vergil was going to even try to resist it, and as long as Dante held his peace his brother could do whatever he wished.

Pulling at the strings that linked him to Vergil was still an option, but Dante couldn't get over the thought that he sort of deserved this. He'd earned a spot here, pinned to the wall, forced to watch Nero work over his own father to get back at him.

Nero eventually pulled Vergil up onto the desk and crawled up atop him, still kissing, still making hungry sounds, and now he pulled one of Vergil's hands between his own legs, forcing his father to grope him. "Come on," Nero whispered, loud enough for Dante to hear but only just. "Touch me."

Vergil complied, and then moved to slide his hand down into Nero's pants. Nero whined, and his hips jerked forward.

"Like that?" asked Vergil, and Nero growled and dropped his mouth once more to Vergil's throat.

"You smell like him," Nero mumbled. "You taste like him, you look like him, you're in his clothes."

"He's right behind you if that's what you want," said Vergil. "I don't think he's in good enough shape to stop you."

"Fuck Dante," said Nero, and he laid his great talons on the desk on either side of himself, supporting his weight so he could work at getting Vergil's pants off. "I hope he's bleeding to death back there."

_You're not far off,_ Dante wanted to say, but when he tried to form a word the blood bubbled in his throat and drowned out the sound.

Vergil had to help in getting one boot off to free up his pants, and getting them off one leg was all Nero had the patience for. Nero reached over Vergil to pull some lubricant out of the desk drawers – and Dante wondered hazily what the kid had been up to these past months that he was now keeping lube in the desk – and then put his feet back on the floor so he could pull Vergil's leg up onto his shoulder.

Dante got a glimpse of Vergil's face, then, as his brother leaned up to kiss Nero's chin while the kid squeezed lubricant onto his fingers. Vergil's eyes were on Dante, like chips of ice. "Come on, Nero," said Vergil. "This is what you want."

"Damned right it is," said Nero, and was that a slight shake in the kid's voice? Glowing translucent feathers shielded some of what Nero was doing, but it wasn't hard for Dante's mind to fill in the blanks as Nero smeared lubricant over his father's skin and then started to work it into his body.

That, finally, seemed to break the icy rage in Vergil's eyes; those cold eyes drifted half-closed, losing focus as Vergil's attention shifted. To soft, wet sounds, Nero worked his fingers into Vergil, and a sharp inhalation told Dante when Nero found the right spot.

"Like that?" asked Nero, and he did it again to elicit another gasp.

"Yes. Come on, do it."

Dante had never heard Vergil sound like that under any circumstances except sexual ones, with himself, and something inside him broke at hearing it now. Nero was right: this _was_ fucked up, and it was Dante's fault it was happening. He would have said something, tried to apologize, asked them to stop, but he could no longer speak through the blood in his throat; his body was trying to heal the wound, but with Yamato still impaling him that was only making him bleed more profusely. He could barely get enough air, and some of the blood was starting to get into his right lung as well. It was enough to make him light-headed.

If either of them heard Dante's choked attempts to speak, they gave no sign. Nero opened his pants and wiped more lube onto himself, then shifted again to line up his groin with his father's rear, his coat moving to conceal what he was doing; both he and Vergil let out low cries as he slowly pushed in, their voices weirdly similar. Nero was definitely shaking, Dante could see it in the way the kid's feathered arms trembled, but that didn't stop him from forcefully driving himself into Vergil, nor from pulling Vergil up from the desk for a deep kiss. Dante wished he could just die.

Vergil was soon throwing back his head again, inviting Nero's lips to his throat as he visibly lost himself to sensation at his son's hands. Nero obeyed the implicit request, and also worked a hand between their bodies to, Dante presumed, stroke Vergil's cock. Then Nero must have made a particularly good thrust because Vergil moaned, and pulled Nero down and closer, and moaned again on the next thrust as well.

"Come on," Nero murmured wetly, and then he drew a third moan from Vergil's throat. The sound was rough and loud, and Vergil's hands were now moving up Nero's back, fingers clutching and nails digging in. "Come on, dad, come on."

Dante was suddenly overtaken by a fit of coughing, which was just as well because he didn't want to watch this anymore, he didn't want to _hear_ his brother moan for someone else, he didn't want to listen to Nero urge someone else to come. The sounds were impossible to fully drown out, but it helped when he lost his balance a bit and fell against Yamato's blade in his ribs, and a fresh flow of blood went hotly down his skin and bubbled in his lung. The absolute agony of that distracted him a bit while Vergil was worked into orgasm by Nero.

But then that settled, and left him with nothing to distract him from Nero driving himself to orgasm on Vergil's body. With one hand wrapped around Yamato's blade to hold himself up, Dante helplessly watched Nero speed up his thrusts, lower his head like a hard-worked horse, and dig his talons into the sides of the desk before a harsh groan was pulled from his throat.

Vergil shifted, sitting up somewhat, and Nero pulled himself free to permit this, and they sank into each other's arms and delivered soft post-coital kisses to each other's lips and cheeks. Nero, still shaking it seemed to Dante's failing vision, put his hands behind Vergil's head and mussed his hair.

"Feel better?" asked Vergil quietly.

"A little." Nero was panting gently, catching his breath, rubbing his nose with the back of one finger. "Thanks." He drew back, brushed his fingers through Vergil's hair, combing out the spikes, then sort of undid that with a swift motion to sweep Vergil's hair back once again.

"Of course. Any time."

Nero glanced over his shoulder at Dante, a frown on his face, and reached back with one glowing talon to rip Yamato free.

Dante fell forward onto the floor, coughing uncontrollably now that the sword was out of him, trying to pick himself up onto his hands and knees and just hawk up all the blood choking him.

"Stop being dramatic, Dante," said Vergil, and Dante heard his brother stand up from the desk, and the rattle of pants being put back on. "You're fine."

"Now we can all get along, right?" said Nero. "I'm fucking you both, and you're fucking each other, so everything is even."

"Right," said Vergil, and Dante felt a twinge of resistance in the threads linking them. As before, it was just a test of the strength of the control. He looked up a bit, spitting blood and then coughing up more. Vergil had retrieved Yamato and was wiping the blood off the blade so he could sheathe it. His eyes were on Dante, and they were hard and cold once more.

"Now I'm getting some sleep," said Nero. He folded his spectral arms over his shoulders, and picked up Red Queen from where it had been pushed a bit to one side on the top of the desk. "I'm going upstairs. The two of you can do whatever."

"I'll come with you," said Vergil, and the two of them went up the staircase to the second floor, leaving Dante to drown in his own blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another [Hellyfish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellyfish/pseuds/Hellyfish) omake:
> 
>  


	4. Chapter 4

Dante woke to kisses, not delivered to himself but taking place next to him.

Vergil was laying on his back in the early-morning sunlight (far too wan for it to be a reasonable hour) with Nero relaxed between his arms and kissing him eagerly. Dante rolled over and watched this for a minute, then reached out and ran one hand down Nero's naked back; when that was received with a pleased hum he leaned over and began to deliver kisses of his own, brushing his lips across Nero's shoulder and down his back. His hand landed on the back of Nero's thigh, feeling the strong muscle beneath the sheath of skin.

The devil claws were not in evidence yet, which made Nero seem more approachable and more kissable. Eventually Nero lifted himself a bit from his father's embrace, and leaned over to share his kisses with Dante; the kid moaned into Dante's mouth.

"What do you want?" asked Dante softly, hand running over smooth skin. "Tell me what you want me to do." If the kid said he wanted to stab Dante through the chest again, Dante thought he might agree.

But that was not Nero's wish, it seemed. Against Dante's lips, Nero murmured, "I want to see the two of you together."

"Mmmm," said Vergil, the sound noncommittal. But Dante was up for a demonstration if his twin was, and so he cocked a look Vergil's way. After a little thought, Vergil sort of shrugged a little and nodded, so Dante shifted his mouth down to his brother's.

Nero moved back to sit on the edge of the bed, watching, as Dante slid into Vergil's arms, replacing Nero on his brother's body. Vergil returned Dante's kiss, hands going down Dante's back, and the taste of his mouth was so familiar, from so many mornings of slow kisses just like these, that Dante for a while completely forgot that Nero was even there. He tongued his way down Vergil's neck, making needy little sounds as he slowly rotated his hips against his brother's, and it wasn't until a third hand landed on his rear that he recalled that they had an audience.

"Don't stop," whispered Vergil, when Dante hesitated at Nero's touch. He didn't want the kid to feel like an outsider in this fucked-up relationship, but that might be inevitable. So Dante hesitated, gently tonguing the pit of Vergil's throat, while he tried to evaluate this conundrum.

The hand on his rear slid up his back to the back of his neck, and was followed by soft lips as Nero leaned over Dante's back to kiss between his shoulders. "You don't have to stop," said Nero, voice low and quiet in the early-morning air. "Keep going."

"Dante," said Vergil, and Dante could feel Vergil's erection trapped and heavy between their bodies.

"All right," said Dante. He dropped his lips back to Vergil's throat and shifted his hips until his own cock lay alongside his brother's, and both could be ground together with the same motion. To Vergil, he asked, "What do you want?"

"You," said Vergil. "Inside me."

Nero made a sound that could not be interpreted, and Dante again hesitated until the kid urged him forward. Well, what was he supposed to do, then, except what he was told? So he kept rubbing his cock and Vergil's between their hips, and Vergil stroked up and down his back and that felt fantastic, until Dante was heated and a little damp with sweat. He groped for the lubricant in the bedside table drawer, and was handed it by Nero.

Dante's familiarity with Vergil's body meant that he could get lube onto his fingers and into Vergil without looking or even necessarily lifting his mouth from his brother's. Vergil raised one leg and Dante hooked his arm under his brother's knee to lift it higher, and then he squeezed some lube onto his fingers and worked it into Vergil blind. Vergil took this almost silently at first, until Dante had his brother slicked up and moved his fingers deeper, feeling for that firm spot that would ...

Vergil gasped as Dante found it, and then again when Dante stroked him a second time. His fingers closed around Dante's upper arms, and he moaned Dante's name. "Dante. Yes."

Dante had to lift himself to move into position, wiping more lube down his cock and dragging it up between Vergil's buttocks until the tip lodged into the correct spot. Vergil raised his other knee to make it easier, and Dante leaned forward to press in.

"Wait," said Nero suddenly, and Dante once again had completely forgotten that the kid was even there. Dante rocked his hips forward until he was completely seated, and then he waited like that, catching his breath from the intense heated pleasure of it.

"What is it?" he asked, when he could.

Nero climbed back up onto the bed behind Dante. "Give me the lube. I want to fuck you while you fuck him."

Oh, _shit._ Dante handed the tube of lubricant over and resettled his weight on Vergil's raised legs, almost out of his mind already with anticipation of how this was going to feel.

"Don't stop completely," said Vergil, and he encouraged Dante to rock a bit into and out of him, teasing out the pleasure while Nero applied lube to Dante. Then it was Dante's turn to gasp as sure fingers found that sweet spot inside him and gave it an intense rub. He rammed his hips forward, and Vergil made a soft sound. "Yes," said Vergil. "More like that."

"Hang on," said Nero, and he shoved Dante hard in the shoulder to force him to bend over more. Then the kid was on Dante's back, erection angling up and pressing hard against Dante's rim as the older hunter tried to hold as still as he could to make it easier.

But once Nero was fully inside him, Dante couldn't have remained still for love or money. He moved slowly, carefully, mindful of Nero inside him, but he had to _move._ The heat clenched around his cock, the pressure inside him from behind and the weight of Nero's body against his back, were together almost too much for him; he pulled back, then rocked slowly forward to drive himself into his brother, while Nero did likewise but more sharply, ramming himself hard into Dante.

Dante couldn't remain quiet at that; every thrust drew a harsh sound from his throat as he fucked Vergil and was fucked in turn. He'd never felt anything like this before, the slide of Nero's cock pulling his attention every time the kid moved, but beneath him was Vergil, so it was Vergil's body in his arms and Vergil's scent that filled his nostrils.

"That's it," said Vergil encouragingly. "Come on, Dante." He crooned a little with a particularly strong thrust, powered mostly by Nero ramming into Dante. His arms hooked around Dante's neck, and Dante heard Nero kissing his fingers.

It was way too much for Dante; he kind of lost his mind for a while, unable to speak, just groaning and rocking his hips as the pleasure mounted. Spikes of sensation shocked through his pelvis with each of Nero's thrusts, heating his skin and coiling in his groin, and he cried out over and over as Vergil touched his face and Nero kissed his back.

He came hard, swaying between them, unable at all to handle everything that was happening. Nero continued to fuck him right through it, and if anything the kid's motions grew more frantic, more forceful. Then Vergil was shifting, and Dante had to sit up slightly, spoiling Nero's angle and forcing the kid to stop.

"Come on, Dante," said Nero, panting. "I'm so close."

"Patience," said Vergil. He was unfolding himself, pulling himself toward upright, dislodging Dante's cock so he could get up out from under Dante. Vergil's cock was still hard – he hadn't come yet, Dante realized – and as soon as it was within easy reach Dante sucked Vergil's erection into his mouth. "There we go," said Vergil, a hand settling in Dante's hair as he got comfortable on his knees. Dante put his hands onto Vergil's thighs to brace himself, and started to fellate his brother.

Behind him, Nero shifted as well to accommodate Dante's new position, and resumed fucking him. Dante spread his knees to encourage this, because it felt _amazing_ to have the kid inside him as he ran his mouth up and down Vergil's cock. Vergil's hand clutched his mop of hair, guiding him to the desired pace, and Dante complied readily. He was so in love with both of these men right at that moment, his heart so full of a desire to please them both. Nero leaned over his back, and Vergil leaned forward up onto his knees, and Dante somehow knew that they were kissing as they fucked him.

Nero came next, his thrusts growing shorter and sharper, then ceasing as the kid buried himself to the hilt and moaned out his pleasure. Vergil took the longest, but he finally ejaculated straight down Dante's throat, grabbing Dante's hair at the temples and forcing him to take it. Dante eagerly accepted as much of Vergil's cock as he could, gagging a little as it lay on the back of his tongue but that was fine, he'd done this so many times before that he no longer cared. He swallowed without hesitation.

Afterward, once Vergil let him go and Nero had pulled out, they lay together in a little pile for a while longer, Nero and Vergil next to each other and Dante stretched atop them both, dividing his kisses between them.

* * *

"Eat your eggs," said Nero, pointing at Vergil's plate.

"I don't like eggs," said Vergil, arranging moving them to one side with his fork.

"Then you shouldn't have ordered them. If you're not going to eat them, give them to me."

Dante moved his coffee cup to one side to give Nero space to commandeer Vergil's eggs. They were sunny-side-up, and Dante wondered if Vergil had even known what he was ordering if he didn't want eggs in the first place. Nero scraped them off Vergil's plate and onto one slice of his toast, salted them, and then crushed one of the yolks and took a bite.

"This is how normal humans eat food," said Nero. "Pay attention, _dad."_

"I know how to eat food," said Vergil patiently. "I just don't like eggs."

"Then you shouldn't have ordered eggs."

"They came with the meal."

"Just tell them to leave the eggs off! Or get bacon instead! There are always options that don't involve wasting perfectly good food." Nero took another bite of eggy toast, glaring at Vergil.

Vergil didn't respond, and Dante would have bet money that his brother hadn't actually known this. He cut his sausage with the side of his fork and took a bite.

"So I have a plan," said Nero. "We're going to go to the department store downtown first, and hope we find some clothes there. If not, we can head to the mall, but I want the mall to be a last resort."

"Why?" asked Vergil.

"Because I don't want to go there if I don't have to. I ran down a demon in the mall a couple months ago and, well ... I may have gotten banned from the mall in the process."

Dante choked on his coffee. _"Banned?_ You?"

"I'm pretty sure there's not a literal picture of me at the door telling the security guards to keep me out," said Nero. "But I'd rather not take that chance."

"How did you get banned?" asked Dante.

"What does it mean to be banned?" asked Vergil.

"It's not something I'm proud of," said the kid, taking another bite of egg-smeared toast. "Let's not talk about that. We're going to the department store first, and we'll probably find clothes there that will fit, and if not we'll cross that bridge then. Okay?"

Vergil kind of shrugged. "As long as I don't have to wear Dante's clothes anymore."

"That's the goal." Then Nero glared at Vergil's plate and he said, "Don't tell me you don't like toast either."

"Not with just butter on it," said Vergil.

"Dammit." Nero raised his hand and called the waitress over. "Can we get some jam or something for our toast please?"

"Of course!" she said, with a smile.

It was nice to see Nero bullying Vergil into something like normalcy, Dante thought. His brother would never be a normal person, or a real father even, but he could get better at it, and Nero might well prove to be a good teacher. Dante finished off his coffee as the waitress brought small tabs of jam to the table, and he watched Nero open one and spread blackberry jam over Vergil's toast to make it acceptable to eat.

It was nice to see, but nevertheless it was a little weird to see the two of them sort-of getting along; Dante supposed that sex would forge intimacy that way. It was just more than a little bizarre to wake up to Nero delivering tender morning kisses on his father, and then later watch Nero angrily spread jam over his father's toast as though Vergil were a child.

Nero loved him. Dante wasn't sure what to do with this information, even though he'd had it for two days now. Dante couldn't say he _didn't_ love Nero back, although it wasn't the same kind of love as what he had for his brother. He loved Vergil enough to destroy him; he loved Nero enough to destroy himself.

"There," said Nero, pushing Vergil's jam-covered toast back toward his father. "Now eat it."

Vergil obediently ate it, and then said, "I want to go to Fortuna."

"What the hell's on Fortuna?" asked Nero. He was putting jam onto his second slice of toast.

"Maybe your mother."

Nero's knife on the toast went still, and he looked up at Vergil with a mixture of anger and hope on his face that made Dante want to punch his brother. "My mother?" said Nero. "I don't know her."

"I knew her. I want to find what happened to her."

"I told you," said Dante, "I'd think about this." It was totally unfair for Vergil to manipulate him by getting the kid's hopes up.

"And now Nero can think about it, too," said Vergil, with a sip of coffee.

"Well, the plan for today is just to get you some clothes," said Dante. "We'll talk about what else to do after that." He didn't bother to disguise the irritation in his voice.

"And food," said Nero. "I need to know what you like to eat, father, so we can get some food in the house for you. I already know Dante only likes pizza." He bit into his toast, thoughtful now, and Dante knew exactly what he was thinking.

"I'll think about Fortuna," said Dante, knowing now that he was going to wind up giving in.

This was, as Nero had said, a fucked-up kind of family circle, but Dante thought he could live with it.

_~ fin ~_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One final omake from [Hellyfish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellyfish/pseuds/Hellyfish):
> 
>  


End file.
